Tuesday, 5 May 2009

This past week has been one of mixed blessings. Computer trouble, big surf, small surf and movie nights. Maybe that depends on whether I can get the disk to burn. It's 5.30 and we kick off in an hour. The burn meter is still only half way across the bar, argh! My afternoon has been spent burning DVD's fast but wrong format on main computer with spiffy new motherboard, switch to laptop and Ano gets the right format but incredibly slow. Why is that?

On Saturday afternoon I took Maxi and his friend Andre on a white knuckle ride to Medewi. I should post some photos, I will but for now go to my Facebook page and look there as they are on the laptop and that is not going to do anything else at present other than finish burning that DVD. I have added the photos in a slideshow ~ Thanks David for showing me that one!

We had a great time there. The ride up took an hour and forty. Which is about standard. You zig zag in and out of this line of trucks and buses on roads that twist and turn through hills and dales. It really doesn't compare to driving in the real world. It's more like those Daytona machines in the amusement arcades that you race your friends on. Speaking of which, Maxi and I had a big session on some Japanese Hi-tech ones on our recent roadtrip through Java. It was in Jogjakarta and we were waiting for the movie to start. But that is a whole other post and a long one at that.

We arrived at 5 ish booked into the room, unpacked grabbed the boards from the roof and made it out into the water. The waves were around 4' but the wind had gotten to it. I sat out the back and the boys sat further inside. We spend the next hour and forty out there. Nice balance to the drive up.

Showers, simple meal at the warung on the beach and half an hour of throwing rocks, the boys not me, at other rocks because they sparked. Funny that! I tired of that and made my way to bed at 8.30 ish. I was asleep before they came in some 30 minutes later, according to them.

Why is is kids do not understand how to either whisper properly, they speak at the same volume as normal just change the tone, nor can they move around quietly without bumping into things which just happen to make the most noise out of all the furniture in the room. It's a skill. Just not sure what for. I was good at that I am sure! So at 5.15 ish they started their cacophony and wandered out into the morning. They returned some 15 minutes later and I inquired what the surf was like. They told me it's too dark to see the waves and proceeded to get ready to go surfing. Ha

So we were in the water at dawn and the funny thing was someone had beaten us out. We surfed until just before 9. Or as I like to put it just before my shoulder seized up. I had a knot the size of a footy under the right shoulder blade made from the drive and exacerbated by the paddling. I was ripe. We went in.

We breakfast not at the warung where we ate dinner but the little kiosk there in the front. It was a little different for Maxi, a lover of all things sweet. He ate mie (noodles) Well done that son of mine. Check out the funky old dude in the slideshow photos. The old girl is even funnier pinching the lads, slapping them lightly and jovially and generally running about creating mayhem. In my humble opinion it would have to be one of the best beaches, for the vibe, in all of Bali. Perhaps Indonesia. Big call I know. Love it though!

It is somewhere in here that the boys went back out for second surf but not before arming me at the little cafe with the camera and a second coffee. They are the shots you see of them. I am conspicuously absent from the shots because boys would never think of sitting out for a session so as to take photos of dad. Heaven forbid!

Andre's mum, Sabine, had tuned us to this guy who sells seafood along the foreshore. Morino or something his name is. Well we found him and orgaqnised for 2 kilos of crabs to be cook at that warung, the bigger one. Not the little one with funky old dude and grand ma!

But before we could partake we had to clear out of the room as it was a twelve check out. I made the two of them shower. Even though I knew full well that they would get a late session after the crab. Sometimes you just have to use soap! And no boys, salt water is not the same as fresh!

This big plate with 7 big blue swimmers was brought out. As kids we would measure a crab with a coke can across the top of its shell to know whether it was size or not. These were all well over size. Plates of nasi putih ( white rice) were placed in front of each of us and a dark red sauce in a bowl was added to the table. I gave the boys there first lesson in how to take a crab shell apart. Gave myself a couple of nasty cuts in the process. Furtive glances from other tables indicated that we were not only the centre of attention but also a certain amount of envy. 30 minutes later we headed out for the third and final session in the surf leaving only a pile of crunched shell in our wake. One great idea they had was to use a big flat river stone, which makes up the entire Medewi Beach, and lay a claw on it bringing another smaller river stone down to crack the thick shell of the crabs. Clever simple and easy to maintain. I will be getting a set of stones for home.

The afternoon session was once again corrupted by the wind and compounded by our aching bodies. There is only so much surfing one can do. But there are ways to save some labour. For instance we would paddle out into the lineup from the keyhole on the point going deep outside. Wait for one of the biggies to come rolling through, catching that for 100-150 metres or so. There you could just paddle to the side and catch another wave a further 100 metres and finally a little wave right to in front of the the boats that sit above the high tide line along the beach. There you stumble out and walk back around to the point to do it all again. Beats the hell out of paddling let me tell you.

We called it a day. we showered, packed the boards high on the roof of the car. I drank the first Coke (without alcohol) I have drunk in ten years as I figured I needed the rush to get me home in one piece. Belted up and entered the chaotic stream of vehicles heading back to Denpasar.

The trip was great the drive crap. Next time we go for two nights to make it worth it me thinks.

Peace.

4 comments:

Love Medewi, agree with you that the drive with the trucks is harrowing! I've discovered the secret is to leave at 4:30am, and get there just in time for the dawn surf. You'll avoid a lot of the port-truck craziness. Great shots of Max et al!

Great shots of Max et al.! I've been told the secret to avoiding the port traffic en route to Medewi/Balian is to leave So. Bali at 4:30 am and arrive just in time for the dawn surf. When I did it there were far fewer kamikaze trucks on the curves vs. on my evening return trip.